I caught the flicker of feathers out of the corner of my eye. Osprey! And then it dove. Wait, was that an osprey or a pelican? Then up it came with a fish in the talon–a big ol’ heavy fish. Down went the osprey, back into the water. I’ve never seen an osprey tread water–until today. It seemed to be riding the waves, flapping when the wave lifted, an enormous fish still firmly in its grasp. When up didn’t work, the next step was to surf in toward the shore. Using the fish as the surfboard, it glided onto shore. Then took a bit of time to adjust, not risking losing that prize dinner, before lifting off and heading north to find a place to sit and dine on fresh seafood.

Ocean bird of prey

battling to land enormous fish

lifting back to sky